


life, and the wholeness therein

by ShippingEverything



Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: Before sophmore year, Canon Compliant, Dreams, Gen, Introspection, just a boy and his bike
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-20
Updated: 2020-02-20
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:00:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22809025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShippingEverything/pseuds/ShippingEverything
Summary: It's summertime in Elmville and Fabian Aramais Seacaster has a few dreams and a bike that loves him
Relationships: Fabian Aramais Seacaster & The Hangman
Comments: 8
Kudos: 38





	life, and the wholeness therein

**Author's Note:**

> its wednesday which means its time for me to have some Fabian Feelings, especially since it's been revealed that the hangman is Just A Big Puppy. Please enjoy this drabble on this, a livestream night. 
> 
> Title paraphrased from this quote: "Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole." - Roger Caras

Usually, Fabian’s dreams are normal. Quickly forgotten exaggerated simulacrums of real life. Sometimes he’d be wearing his father’s large and ill-fitting clothes at school, sometimes he’d be careening down endless roads on the Hangman, sometimes he’d be throwing a Bloodrush ball off a ship’s edge into the roiling sea below. Normal, if ridiculous, things, dreams that anyone could have.

But sometimes... he dreams of fire, of Seacaster Manor in flames and of Kalvaxis chasing him and Adaine down; he dreams of arcades, of ugly black-lit carpeting and of being terrified and trapped in a pixelated space; he dreams of immovable wooden weight and cold sharp steel and blank scarecrow eyes and-

“Hangman!” The words are out of Fabian’s mouth before he’s even fully up, still jolting out of sleep and into his own rumpled bed.

_“Master? Is there trouble?”_

Fabian takes stock of his room. His letterman jacket hangs over his desk chair, his computer screensaver displays a digitized aquarium, a printed photo of Fabian and the other Bad Kids hangs on the wall by the door, physically glued there by Kristen. The window by his bed is open slightly, letting in the cool air of an Elmville summer night but not much else; it’s quiet out this time of night, even this close to the river. He is not in his father’s room, it is not his prom night, Dayne Blayde’s body is deep in the ground and his left hand is deep frozen in a minifridge in Fabian's closet, and Fabian Aramais Seacaster is _fine_.

“No, no, I’m-” Fabian clears his throat, feeling more and more silly as his heart rate slows, “I’m sorry, Hangman, everything is fine.”

The Hangman rumbles disbelievingly, exactly the way Fig taught it to before she left on tour, as it says, _“Are you certain?”_

“I’m sure. I was merely… overreacting. Anyway,” Fabian immediately redirects, throwing his covers off and grabbing his jacket, “Do you want to go for a ride?”

There’s a jolt across their connection, the full force of the Hangman’s undistilled _excitement_ at the words pushed towards Fabian, before the Hangman answers _“Absolutely!”_

Fabian can hear the Hangman bolting out of the garage and doing donuts in the street in front of the house even before he reaches the entryway, but when he slides on his sneakers and leaves the house, the Hangman is dutifully still and waiting for him.

“Master,” The Hangman says, “I eagerly await your legs astride my seat.”

Fabian runs a hand over the Hangman’s skull, an absent-minded motion that makes the Hangman’s front wheel jump happily, and slides into the seat, the swing of his leg over the seat practiced and easy now.

“I was thinking that we could go to the Mithril Factory,” Fabian says, and the Hangman is already going before Fabian finishes his sentence, sending something raw and warm through their bond as Fabian grabs the handlebars and grins. In Fabian’s experience, the only thing the Hangman loves more than assisting Fabian in combat is doing tricks on the Dwarven half-pipes when there are no stakes. Still, he teases, “I’ll take that as a yes, then.”

“Master, I would go to the ends of the earth if you asked it, but to go to the _Mithril Factory_ is no hardship.”

Fabian merely laughs. If someone had asked Fabian, a year ago, what kind of transport he desired, he would’ve asked for a ship of his own; he grew up on the sea, grew up hearing tales of his father’s adventures, and could barely imagine what life on land would be like, much less what land vehicles he could grow to love. Owning a ship always seemed like an inevitability, his duty as the son of Bill Seacaster. _Bill Seacaster never owned a motorcycle_ , Fabian thinks as he directs the Hangman to bank hard around a corner. Bill Seacaster never sped down the streets of Elmville, wind ripping through his hair and surety in his chest and affection pulsing up at him from his steed. This moment, as the Hangman arrives at the factory and races, without prompting, towards the half-pipes, is Fabian's and Fabian's alone.

Later, when the Hangman has tired himself out doing spins and jumps, when Fabian's energy is beginning to flag as the sun rises, the Hangman rumbles, “Are you truly alright, master?”

Fabian settles his hand between the Hangman's handlebars, gently scratching at the metal there as the Hangman purrs. He thinks of his dreams, faded in his memory as they are now, of his father and his friends and the fucking ridiculous freshman year he's just had. He thinks of the Hangman, and of the way it trusts him, implicitly.

“I think,” He starts, voice almost too high, too strained. He clears his throat and tries again, “I think it's going to be, Hangman. I really think it will.”

**Author's Note:**

> fabian just really loves his dog/motorcycle and really doesn't want to think about his trauma and that's just valid. also, each of fabian's mentioned dreams in the beginning have a Symbolism and i would yell about if prompted. 
> 
> thanks so so much for reading, kudos, comments, and bookmarks fill my soul!
> 
> [Main Tumblr (pldubrahs)](http://www.pldubrahs.tumblr.com) | [Writing Tumblr (nacreousglowclouds)](http://nacreousglowclouds.tumblr.com/) | [Personal Twitter (@squidias)](http://twitter.com/squidias)


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